Bothawui
"I never liked the way this planet /smells/. It smells like deceit." "Don't be a fool, Lampur. It smells like rebellion. And to me, that smells like fun." ::-- Quintus Ashe to his aide on surveying Bothawui for conquest Bothawui has seen much turmoil since the establishment of the Empire. Bothan society has made increasing use of military technology as successive regimes tried to bully or control the commercial and intel assets of the Bothan people. In the early days, before the Empire and after, Bothawui sent out colony ships to various worlds, establishing satellite societies that relied upon Bothan goods and allowed the Bothans to ensure their economy would continue even when events in the wider galaxy forced them to become insular. In the time of the Empire, just after Yavin, Bothawui was punished for its support of the Rebel Alliance when a trio of Victory Class Star Destroyers raked turbo lasers over the great cities. This act, known as the Reaving in Bothan society, saw the social fabric of Bothawui begin to unravel. With people forced from the ruins of the cities by Stormtrooper garrisons, Bothans had to embrace the military ideas they had long shunned as a last resort. The wilderness of Bothawui had become no more gentle in the millennia since their ancestors first carved out cities in the jungles and so the clans each went their own way as readymade resistance cells. The ancient method of rule, the Clan Council, was re-established to govern the society as a whole and eventually, as the Rebels pushed in from the Rim, the Bothans were able to seize back the smoldering ruins of their world. While Bothawui was cut off, the minor colonies were forced to unify to supply their needs. The clans even co-operated with the Empire as much as was required to ensure their safety. It was here that the ideals of the Bothan society held true and the Bothan Trading Company was re-established on the colony of Kothlis. Once Bothawui was free the Offworld Bothans, led by the commercial Clan Vreeth, returned to Homeworld to find it changed. Long years of war and hardship had forged a harder and crueler society, where refinement had been abandoned in favour of the efficiency of war. Entire families within a clan were now given over to military aspirations, with young Bothans being taken out into the Bothan wilds to hunt and claim the blood of the wild beasts that roamed the jungles. The Offworld Bothans saw this as something they had to rectify and so the Trading Company moved in to rebuild Corporate City and re-establish Bothan society along the lines of the Offworld Clans. This move was not admired by the clans who remained on Bothawui. They saw the Offworld Clans as mere traitors and collaborators. The clans who had remained on Bothawui, led by clans Ilan, Alya, and Khan, repulsed this perceived invasion using tools captured from the invading Imperials. After a protracted civil war, the Clan Council emerged victorious over the Trading Company and the Offworld Clans retreated back to the colonies. The Offworld Clans, shocked by the shift in Bothan culture, declared themselves guardians of 'Bothan values.' After the Offworld Clans left, Clan Khan took up residence in the partly-rebuilt Corporate City, abandoning the nomadic lifestyle of the Reaving. Over the next few decades Bothan society developed with Clan Khan shifting slowly towards the ways of old while clans Ilan and Alya also softened in their approach. However the Offworld Clans had found new friends to help them achieve their aims in the intervening decades. People who professed to share the desire of restoring Bothan society, as was, to the Bothan Homeworld. So it was with new weapons and troops from these shadowy hidden friends that Clan Vreeth returned at the head of a flotilla to reclaim Bothawui for 'true Bothan Culture'. As the ships lumbered into low orbit, the Clan Council convened and realised that it was not in the position of a hundred years; it could not repulse the Offworld Clans. Negotiations began with the sword of the Offworld Navy hanging over their heads, and the Clan Council accepted subservience to the Bothan Trading Company once more. After the Return, Corporate City was taken by Clan Vreeth for the headquarters of this new united Bothan empire and the rebuilding of a hundred years before was completed, buildings not seen on Bothawui since the pre-Empire days. The militaries of the Clans were banned and the Clan Council was forbidden from possessing lethal weaponry, proclaimed as a measure to help the Bothawui clans rediscover their roots. Over time limited police forces were permitted, armed with non-lethal weaponry, but the power rested with the Trading Company and its unknown backers. Over time these backers were given the presidency of the Trading Company by the Offworld Clans, who were permitted in turn to run the company day to day through a trio of vice-presidents, all from Offworld Clans like Clan Vreeth. Corporate City itself was reserved so only non-Bothans and Offworld Bothans were permitted residency, policies designed for the safety of the numerically smaller Offworld presence. These acts however helped to ensure that the authority of the Trading Company extends little further than the walls of Corporate City. While some clans, such as Clan Khan, were willing to work with Clan Vreeth so that their clan members did not suffer and could benefit from the arrangements, other clans were not so willing. These clans still sit with the Clan Council and attend the meetings of the toothless organisation. Behind closed doors they plot, and rumours emerge. Rumours of old caches left over from the days of the Reaving. Of the Bothan military forces of yore. Weapons cached when war first came to Bothawui in the days of Chancellor Bellamy. Stories dismissed by all as the tales of overexcited children and bitter old men. However, suspicion and distrust reigns on Bothawui between the Clans and recent Clan Council meetings have demanded the restoration of native Bothan rights. Category:Planets